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Mom Explains Infertility to Her 7-Year-Old Son—Here's His Sweet Response

by Amy Clark

Jul 27, 2017

For parents, talking to kids about the new baby who’ll be arriving can be a tricky conversation.

But after all the preparation and excitement, what happens if the baby doesn’t arrive?

Mother-of-two and PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Infertility) Support Girl social media advocate, Shelby Eckard found herself facing this challenge when her 7-year-old saw an ultrasound picture of her friend’s baby. A little baby they will never get to meet.

In a post to her 55,000 Instagram followers, Eckard not only shared how she handled the difficult conversation many families face every day but the wise way her son responded.

“This morning, my 7-year-old son walked in on me crying at my desk. He asked, ‘Momma, why are you crying?’” Eckard wrote, explaining her son had seen a text message from her friend containing ultrasound images of the baby she lost.

When her son became confused about why a baby was making his mom cry— “because babies are awesome”—Eckard tackled the delicate task of explaining infertility to a child.

A post shared by PCOS Support girl™ (@pcos_support_girl) on Jul 19, 2017 at 7:43am PDT

“Having a child is like looking forward to a birthday. You know the time for it is coming. And for some reason, for some, those 'baby days' don’t come when they’re supposed to. Or ever,” she wrote.

“It’s like waiting on a present and not knowing if you’ll ever get it. And it can make you sad. If you were looking forward to your birthday, and it didn’t come, you’d be sad, right?”

Hours later, Eckard was intrigued to see her son working away on some drawings, surrounded by an assortment of textas and crayons.

When she asked him what he was working on, well… We’ll let this his words speak for themselves:

“I want those ladies to be happy, too. I want them to get their presents,” he said.

“I can’t give them a baby. And I thought maybe they can borrow my sister for a little, but I can’t drive and I’d miss her. So I am drawing them pictures as presents. Maybe you can send them to them for me? When they’re sad?

“I don’t want them to give up. I want them to be happy.”

For Shelby and many other parents who often doubt whether they’ve got this whole parenting thing down, take this as confirmation your efforts are working.

This story originally ran on Mamamia, Spring.St's sister site, in Australia. You can read the original post here.